Monday, August 5, 2013

Introducing Money Hip Mamas & $25 Amazon Giveaway

Welcome to Money Hip Mamas!

From back in the day---here's when we were "hooded" for our Masters Degrees: Lauren (left) and Lisa (right)

Hello!

We are
ridiculously excited to introduce our blog to you!

We’ll
start right off with two confessions. 1. We are accountants. 2. We love
ourselves a good mommy blog.

Back in
April, Lauren and I were talking about how we’ve noticed the blogosphere is
filled with a million mommy blogs about cooking, fashion, parenting, etc., but hardly
any about money and personal finance. And the relatively few that do talk about
money seem to focus almost exclusively on the small stuff (*cough* couponing)
and never mention the big stuff--the things that really affect your financial health ("Hey! Are you maxing out your
employer's 401k match?--that's free money!" "Do you have enough life
and disability insurance?" "Are you taking advantage of all the tax
credits and deductions?").

Enter moneyhipmamas.com. We
created this website and blog as a fun and easy way to get all you smart people
out there thinking about personal finance. We’ll cover the heavy stuff in a fun
way (e.g. budgeting, retirement, college savings plans, etc.) and the light stuff (money saving tips,
DIY home projects, organization ideas) to keep it interesting. We plan on
having new posts and ideas for you every Monday and Thursday, so subscribe and stay
tuned.

Who We Are

Feel free
to check out our About Us page to
read more about our journeys from the corporate/financial world to becoming stay-at-home
moms, but truth be
told, despite the fact that each of us has a financial background, neither of
us is a personal finance expert. We're just very, very interested (it's kind
of embarrassing how much we like personal finance--we're trying to
get help). The real
value of this blog will come in the comments section: we'll tell you what we
know and get the conversation started. Every post, we'll include questions in
hopes that you'll share your thoughts and ideas (please!).

Follow us! Giveaway--$25
Amazon Gift Card

Although
we hope you'll add us to your blog lists (moneyhipmamas.com) or subscribe by e-mail (see sidebar), "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@MoneyHipMamas) and Pinterest because you're truly interested and want
to hear more, we're not above bribery to get the ball rolling. So we're kicking off our blog with
a giveaway (and plan on having more in the future).

You can
earn up to 10 entries by entering through the Rafflecopter giveaway widget, but
if nothing else, leave a comment below and we'll make sure you get an entry.In the comment, please tell us a topic you'd
like us to cover in an upcoming post.

Giveaway
ends on Saturday, August 10th (12am EST) so check back on Monday, August 12th to find out
if you won! And, again, WELCOME to Money Hip Mamas!

I would like to know more about student loans. I hear about them a lot in the news, but I haven't really followed what is happening. Also any tips either of you have about going through grad school and making it out alive :) My husband just finished his first year of a 3 year program at the Univeristy of Utah. We try to avoid debt, but we make too much to qualify for financial aid and too little to completely pay for school. Any tips?

I would like to hear about how to get a good interest rate on short-term savings. Whenever we put money into savings we are afraid to do something that locks us into leaving the money there for a certain period of time in case we have an emergency and need the money out.

kscott I went to school with Lauren and Lisa and I am planning to write a guest post in the next couple weeks about staying afloat as a SAHM. I quit my (good-paying, quality-health-insurance-including) full-time job when my first kid was born, right after my husband's first semester of law school. We said at the time that we would go as long as we could and as soon as we ran out of money I would go back to work. We made it through the remaining 2 1/2 years of school and 8 months of waiting for Bar results and I'm still at home.

Ditto the kid savings account--how soon and what are good options--as well as reviews on different budgeting software (the pros and cons of quicken, mint, and others I should know about). Specifics on setting budgets, sticking to budgets, budgets, budgets, did I mention budgets?

Basic monthly budgeting (how much to allow yourself of your monthly paycheck for certain items i.e. grocery shopping... what's reasonable for a fam of 4 type thing?) and sticking to budgets. And if you can do it in a way for a person like me who hates these topics because I feel like they're over my head and not fun, that'd be great! haha. But serious. I love that you said you'd make it fun. That's what I need.

I know you mentioned "are you the only one saving for retirement?"... what about those of us who still have a husband in school (3rd year medical student at age 27)? Thus not making any money. Any suggestions?

I would love a post about comparing the cost of paying off loans early when you have extra money (especially student loans), versus taking the full term of the loan to pay it off and using extra money for other investments.

I once made a mistake where I didn't check with my heath insurance company to see if a lab was in-network. The nurse had referred me to that lab assuring me that it was, but it turns out there was a recent change and it ended up costing me an extra $400 just for going to an out-of-network provider. I couldn't help thinking that that tiny mistake that only took a few seconds to make wiped out hours and hours of past and future couponing!

Anyway, I love that this blog is about the "big things".

I would love to hear what you girls think is the best child education savings method.

I also really like Health Savings Accounts and think that would be a good topic.

Hey girls what a great idea for a blog! I am finally now coming to it and have been meaning to since I first saw something a couple weeks ago. I will be a loyal follower and supporter - you go you frugal, accountant moms! I would love to see updates with deals you find online or in stores for kid products / favorite things AND i am pretty clueless about health insurance now that my husband's company offers HSA I'd love to know more!

How about tips for buying a car. Used or new... I just had the worst buyers remorse ever because I bought a car that was too expensive pretty much because the salesman told me to. He was really pushy and I am bad at saying no/negotiating. And I can't return it - I tried. Grr.

Saving money on excursions with children. Is it worthwhile to pay for a membership to the zoo, etc. I just wrote about this myself, but I'd love to read a second opinion on the topic.onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com

I thought I'd left a comment, but just in case. I'll like to know more about housing loans, property taxes, how to maximize your tax refund with your home loans... something like that. I really have no idea.

I would love a post about how to choose a good rewards credit card. Or what really effects your credit score. We are looking at getting a rewards credit card but are nervous that opening one will negatively effect us.

IRS regulations require us to advise you that, unless otherwise specifically noted, any federal tax advice in this communication (including any attachments, enclosures, or other accompanying materials) was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties; furthermore, this communication was not intended or written to support the promotion or marketing of any of the transactions or matters it addresses.

The information presented is to the best of our knowledge, but does not specifically take into account your personal situation. We cannot provide the specific guidance that your personal tax advisor can. We are not responsible for the results of reliance on the contents of this blog and articles herein.

Money Hip Mamas is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.